TL;DW:
Due to various molecular configurations (aka polymorphs), currently known medicines when contaminated with a catalyst seed molecule/particle can become irreversibly unreproducible via chained-contaminations.
- the contamination can cause the existing configurations to become more stable in a negative fashion where the medicine/compounds no longer work they way we expect them to.
This system of contamination and reproduction acts in similar fashion to viral infections.
Current Solutions:
- better clean room procedures for all steps of medicine manufacturing.
- pour more money into medicine polymorph research.
The cover picture is likely gallium over aluminium, unrelated to medication. Metallic aluminium is surprisingly reactive, but usually you don't notice it because it's covered with a layer of oxide; so in the presence of certain other metals you get a vicious cycle, like:
It also works with mercury. The metal, not this one.
Now I'm going to watch the video. Sorry. I just had to babble about metals, plus aluminium fuckery brings me childhood memories (not even joking).
The video is about polymorphism. Both tin pest and the drug incident that this video covers are instances of polymorphism where a less desirable polymorph is more stable. It goes into detail about similarities, differences and much more.
If it helps any, gallium poisoning was my first thought as well.
Video talks about tin pest.
Ah, it's tin pest? (I'm watching the video right now.)
Same "basic" idea, of a vicious cycle. Except you don't need reaction with an external substance, like oxygen; the catalyst for tin pest is even more tin. (That means the blob over the cube of metal is likely a piece of grey tin. You could use germanium instead but eh, it's more expensive.)